Mistress of the Elements: Storm/Ororo fanfic

Chapter 1- a visit from the past

"Ororo, please come back home... The team needs you... I need you- we need you."

Ororo Munroe was silent for a moment while her former team-mates sat in front of her looking anxious. Jean Grey and Scott Summers looked out of place in her sleek white and grey office. New York city didn't suit them as well as they might think. Looking out of place, Scott wore a dated polo and cargo shorts, and Jean, a yellow sundress that was accentuated by her red hair. In contrast, Ororo wore a chic grey sheath dress with a crisp white blazer. Logan stood in the back of the room, as always, silent and sullen- wearing what must have made him easily mistaken for a city construction worker.

The longer Ororo looked at them silently the more anxious they two seemed to become. She enjoyed being the one with power. She enjoyed watching their discomfort after her many years of being uncomfortable herself... Always uncomfortable and never able to name it. Something would eat away at her day after day. She could never place it- so much so- she began to think maybe she was the problem. But the death of Charles changed everything...

What sounded like a growl began to escape from Ororo's throat- low at first, but the sound grew until it eventually escaped her lips as laughter. The laughter grew more fierce as it became a cackle and Ororo doubled over- throwing back her head and holding her sides. How could they ever think that she would come back? And with such a weak plea? No. She would never be returning to the mansion. Not now, not ever.

After wiping away her laughter-induced tears, Ororo finally straightened. When she looked back at Jean and Scott they were staring at her horrified- as if she had become a mad woman. How could they be so oblivious? No- that was a silly question, Ororo already knew that these people thought the world revolved around them.

She composed herself and sat on the front of her desk. "I suppose returning to the mansion would mean returning to everything else? My teaching duties, my team duties,.... ... the nannying, the gardening, the cleaning, the cooking, the driving, the fixing of feelings, the tending after wayward children and adults?" For a moment Ororo didn't know if she should go on. Scott and Jean seemed to be shaking their heads, hungrily awaiting her approval. "...Or maybe you mean that I should come back home to continue our little unspoken agreement between us where I do 80% of the work for the school, the team, the mansion and you both play out your boring melodramatic romance while taking all of the credit?"

"Now wait just a minute--" Scott tried to interrupt, but Ororo would not be stopped- not this time. She spoke louder now- over his objection- in her calm and cool voice. It swirled around them like the winds of a soft breeze.

"Or maybe you mean turning a blind eye to you and the team when you make racist and misogynistic remarks? Is that what you mean? Don't get emotional. Don't tell you how inappropriate it is for you to ask absurd questions about my hair or my skin tone? ... Do you mean that I should continue to pretend I don't want to regurgitate at your disgusting "boys will be boys" policy that allows our young men to think they have free reign over women's sexuality and bodies without ever being reprimanded? Return to pretending that I don't hear your rather loud wagers that question if 'Storm is a lesbian or if she merely prefers non-white men'... Is that what you mean?" Jean face shaded as red as her hair. Ororo could not tell if it was from the truth in her comments or because she was angry.

Ororo, Jean tried to reach out to her with her mind. Ororo replied out loud, "No Jean. You are not welcome here." She sent a warning- from now on, my mind is only my own.

Ororo continued where she left off, "You will forgive me if I am not anxious to return to regular comments and questions regarding my race, my femininity, my sexuality, and my body... normalized by adults and children alike. Having to justify my existence- or perhaps my humanity- day in and day out is exhausting and so I simply refuse to do it anymore." She looked back to her work as she sorted her notes for her next client.

The silence on the subject clearly showed Jean and Scott's confusion. They had never previously considered their actions as affecting anyone other than themselves. Typical, Ororo thought to herself.

She sighed before continuing. She would have to divorce herself of emotion in order for them to understand. She began again, "I hold a Juris Doctorate and a PhD in psychology. I am not your servant or your nanny.... No," she said thoughtfully, " I am not even your friend. That was something entirely made up, and has died with Charles and the Ororo he tried to incept me to be."

"I am not going back to the mansion, not now, not ever. And now that Charles is gone, and his incessantly bombarding messages meant to keep me co-dependent and afraid to leave, I no longer believe that X-MEN is all I have. That was and is never going to be true."

We are your family- the thought crept in through her mind. But with the silence in her mind since she had left the mansion, she knew an incepted thought when it came to her. She knew it was Jean trying to force her to have feelings that were not real- just as Charles used to in their "weekly sessions." This caused Ororo's composure to momentarily break as she felt the air around her spark and crackle with electricity.

The thought stopped immediately and Jean looked down. As she did so, Ororo grounded her feet once more- but her eyes remained white with anticipation of ongoing physical and mental attacks.

Scott stood up before he spoke next. "Ororo, how could you say these things? I mean, come on- You know me! I'm a mutant for god-sakes and I was on the team that saved you from that flea-infested shit-heap in the slums of of Africa! If it wasn't for Charles and I, you would have died there- starving on the streets or worse- selling your body to every neighborhood warlord and drug king." he sighed heavily. "....Look, you're taking all this too personally. Let's let the past go and move forward together- as a team."

Ororo looked to the door, and spoke dangerously low. Although she had managed to ground herself, the air around her still pulsed with heat, "perhaps you did not hear me correctly Scott Summers. You and I are are not friends, not roommates, not teammates. The now deceased professor, and the woman to your right, put lies in my head day after day after day for the last 11 years. You, and the rest of your adult comrades are not people I would have chosen to spend one day with- let alone a decade. My only regret is that I didn't connect the dots sooner."

"How dare you talk to me that way!" Scott yelled indignantly. "You ungrateful bitch! We took you in when you had nothing. When you WERE nothing!!" Scott started to spit, but Ororo was done with the conversation.

In her year away from the Mansion she had learned to harness abilities she didn't know she had. First in Wakanda, where the shamans of the mountains had given her visions of her past lives. There she discovered she was not only mistress of the winds, but of the elements of air and water itself. She could manipulate the water and oxygen in both living and nonliving objects at her will. Being back in Africa and working with TChallah had shown her how to use those gifts for so much more...

Ororo lifted from the floor, and as she did so, Scott Summers began to hack and wheeze. He fell to one knee gasping for air with one hand on his chest. The other hand took Jean's and unconsciously pulled her down as well.

"We're Sorry, okay!" Jean cried. Tears ran down her cheeks as she watched her lover begin to turn blue. She turned into him and began to sob as he continued to struggle for air.

Ororo halted her assault on Scott's oxygen supply. Remaining suspended, she spoke only four more words: "You have 30 seconds."

Scott, still working on catching his breath, tried his best to stand with Jean's support. They turned to leave the room, but once they reached the door, Jean turned to Ororo and, with all of the venom of a viper, stated "Don't you even think about coming back to the mansion after this. We are done, and if you even set one foot on our property, I'll call the police so fast that you won't even have time to whisk yourself away on the winds. I'll make sure of that personally."

"12 seconds..."

And with that, Scott and Jean were gone. Ororo descended and began to straighten her blazer as she sat down once again to focus on her work.